


from shadows

by nickofhearts



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Daemon!Noct AU, Gen, Horror, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 14:39:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9611852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nickofhearts/pseuds/nickofhearts
Summary: AU where Ardyn steals Noctis away during Niflheim's raid on Tenebrae andfucking messes him up.





	1. you look ravenous, my dear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamingcicadas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamingcicadas/gifts).



Your earliest memories are of pain, so much pain that you can't _breathe_ through it, but you're screaming, so you must be able to. It's dark, and you can't move, but you just want it to stop, you'd do anything to make it stop, so much darkness that it fills your vision and it gets _inside_ you, spreading through your veins until it reaches your heart. It hurts _so much_ , but the more you fight the more it hurts, the faster it crawls through you until you can feel it everywhere, the edges of sharp claws dragging over your skin, tearing you apart.

You stop struggling. It's so cold, and it still hurts, but the pain gets further and further away the less you try to fight it.

It feels like a long time, but maybe only seconds have passed.

You open your eyes, and everything looks strange for a moment, not how it _should_ look, but it settles back into normalcy and you remember that this is right.

You reach out and the straps that were holding your arms to the table snap open. You get up on shaky legs, walking over to the door. You want out, and the door isn't enough to stop you. It's only metal, and your hands tear through it like there's nothing easier.

"You must be hungry, Noctis," the smiling man standing outside of it says, and yes.

You are so _very_ hungry.

He takes you to a room filled with cages, and in those cages are people. You don't wait for him to open the door. You reach through the bars for the people, and they're screaming, but they stop soon enough. You eat and eat and eat until they're all gone, but it's not enough.

You're still hungry. 

"You can have more tomorrow," the man tells you, petting your hair. 

That's—nice? 

You lean into it with a low murmur, rumbling in your throat. His hand is red when he takes it away, but he doesn't seem to mind.

-

People are afraid of you, but that's nothing strange. People are _weak_ , food for you and your friends. You don't understand why Ardyn likes to pretend to be one of them, putting on his sheep skin and mingling with the feed, but he says they're useful.

"You should try it, Noctis," he says, combing his fingers through your hair. "You _might_ even like it."

You don't.

-

There's a man speaking with Ardyn that looks familiar. You think you've seen him before, but you can't remember where. He smells like the toys that Ardyn likes to play with, a thick metal and magic skin, but there's something underneath it that's even more familiar. You want to reach out and touch it, you want to feel it at your fingertips.

"Noctis, come meet General Glauca."

You slink out of the shadows, stepping close enough to see his face. It's only human after all.

You remember suddenly—bright sunlight and sparks of _magic_ —you remember who he is. "Magic's a funny thing, isn't it Drautos? It serves the master who commands it _best._ "

He moves, but his sword can't hurt you when it can't touch you.

Your hand in his chest, however, is clenched around his heart, and you let your flesh become solid again for just long enough that you crush it to a pulp.

 _General_ Glauca is a useless mass of metal crumpled on the floor, and you look at the red on your hand where you'd held his beating heart. The feeling of familiarity is gone, the magic that had been tied to his life burning for a single instant against your palm before it'd faded away into nothing.

How peculiar, that it'd felt like _home._

-

"You'll always be hungry, Noctis," Ardyn says. He licks the blood off your fingers one by one, and just because they're clean doesn't mean they haven't done terrible things.

You press your mouth to where he'd missed a spot on his lip, _so hungry_.

-

Your friends aren't allowed out of the basement levels, but no one stops you from seeing them. Your favourite is Cerberus, his three heads that snap and snarl at anyone who gets too close, but not you.

"I've brought you a present," you tell him, dragging the body of Glauca behind you. 

You throw it into the pen. 

Cerberus snaps the body between his jaws, confused when the armor doesn't rend apart. It's strong, well-made, and Ardyn had sighed at you like it was a great inconvenience that you had destroyed one of his many toys.

You like the daemons because they don't think complicated thoughts.

They just want to eat, and play, and run howling through the halls, tearing at anything that comes their way. You hold your hand out to Cerberus, patting him on each of his snouts. Figuring out how to get Glauca out of his armor will be an afternoon's entertainment, and you laugh, watching him slam the armor against the floor with a thunderous clang, laugh harder when all the scientists in the room outside flinch.

Ardyn says you're better than them, but why should you be?

-

"I have a surprise for you, Noctis," Ardyn tells you. He looks exceptionally pleased with himself, so the surprise is probably something truly awful.

You groan, turning back to the window.

You feel it before you see it, the girl that walks through the door ringed in light—it hurts just to look at her. 

" _Noctis_ ," she says, tears in her eyes as she comes towards you. "What have they done?"

You want to scramble back, but Ardyn's got a hand on your shoulder, not letting you. You feel yourself snarling, the shape of your face changing, your hands twisting into claws, and you can't control it. 

The light _hurts,_ and you slash at it until it doesn't anymore, doesn't make your skin burn.

-

"No one's coming to save you," Ardyn had said. He'd held you in his arms, stroking your hair, but there'd been nothing comforting in it. You watched the people on the ground get further and further away, your father and Luna and everything else you'd ever known.

You'd been so afraid, because you'd known it was true. 

You're not afraid now, but you're not sure it's better.

-

"Luna," you whisper, looking at the body of the dead girl lying on the ground. The memories flutter behind your eyes like a life you never lived, a series of sequential photographs flashing by.

"Go ahead," Ardyn says, letting you go. "She can't hurt you now."

You reach for the curve of a pale arm, smearing the blood on your fingers. You press it to your mouth, and the taste is so sweet, like something forbidden. You sit yourself on the floor and you devour her, bite by bite.

You take a long time, because her flesh is so rich, better than anything you've ever had before.


	2. don't you mean ravishing?

You don't like the Emperor. He's old, and he's weak, and he looks at you like you're something that can be _controlled._

You aren't, and you show him exactly how much the next time Ardyn takes you along for an audience.

He reaches out to tilt your face from side to side, examining you like some kind of animal, and you're hissing a low warning from deep in your throat. You see Ardyn move a few steps back with his gaze on high as if he's admiring the architecture, but you know it's because he's precious about getting blood on his clothes.

The Emperor touches the side of your face where your skin breaks into scales, and that's enough.

Your hands are already claws and you shove them deep through his chest, hollowing out a place where his heart had been. _Disgusting_ , you don't even want to eat him.

"Oh—" Ardyn says, though he doesn't seem that bothered. "This might be a problem."

You step forward to sit on the throne, mimicking the former Emperor's stance. "Is it?" you ask him.

-

Ardyn's illusion is perfect, but you slip up sometimes. People are so _boring_ , with all their mundane little problems, and their fear.

It's funny, because they think Ardyn is less terrifying than you, that he's not waiting to eat them up just the same.

-

Ardyn's appointed a new General since you disposed of the last one, and he says you're to meet him _personally._ Ravus looks something like a drowned cat, which makes you wonder, was this the best Ardyn could do?

You watch him come up to the throne, but he doesn't stop to pay his respects.

He grabs you by your many-layered clothing and he sneers—"You're Noctis aren't you?"

He's close enough for you to _smell_ him, and oh.

You smile at him like you've seen Ardyn do to the people he's toying with. "Is it only the Oracle that tastes so sweet, or is it everyone in her line?"

-

Ardyn is tsking at the bloody destruction you've made of the throne room again, but you're just disappointed. Ravus hadn't tasted very good at all. 

You lick the blood off your hands slowly, sensually. Long deliberate swipes of your tongue from the base of a finger to the very tip, where it's sharp enough to cut metal. You hear the low growl of Ardyn's voice before he comes into sight, yanking you off the throne.

You slide into his lap and you rub your face against his, getting it messy with blood.

It tastes much better like this, underpinned with the taste of _Ardyn,_ dark and smoky, more familiar than anything you've ever known.

-

"I do believe—" Ardyn says, moving pieces on the war board—"it's time to take the last shining bastion of the East." He smiles with such smug self-satisfaction that you wonder if there's something more _personal_ about this one kingdom than any of the others you've left behind in your wake, ruined and broken.

You shrug, uncaring.

Lucis is nothing more to you than a name, another bit of the map that's waiting to be washed in red.

"Have you forgotten, Noctis?" Ardyn touches his cheek to yours, the scent of him strong and warm and comforting. "Lucis was your home, many moons past."

You reach out for his heavy overcoat, nuzzle your face into the crook of his neck. It's not your home _now._

-

Lucis looks familiar the way objects through a kaleidoscope look like something you might have known—patterns and shapes that once had meaning turned into a mad scramble.

You step off the airship, and Ardyn's illusion shatters into pieces around you.

"Hello, _father_ ," you say to the King, before shoving your hand through his chest.


End file.
